Arthritis: Arthritis of the knee is an inflammatory disorder of the knee joint that is often painful. Arthritis has a variety of symptoms.

Knee Osteoarthritis:

iis caused by degeneration of cartilage in the knee. In its extreme form, the menisci (cartilage) will be completely eroded, and the femur will rub on the tibia, bone on bone.

Symptoms: Osteoarthritis causes a chronically painful knee that is often more painful with activity.

Rheumatoid arthritis:

is a connective tissue disease of the whole body that affects many joints, including the knee. People who have this disease often have family members who suffer from it as well.

Symptoms: In addition to knee pain, rheumatoid arthritis may produce morning stiffness and pain in other joints.

Crystalline Arthritis

(gout and pseudogout)

These severely painful forms of arthritis are caused by sharp crystals that form in the knee and other joints. These crystals can form as a result of defects in the absorption or metabolism of various natural substances such as uric acid (which produces gout) and calcium pyrophosphate (pseudogout).

Bursitiscan come about from a result of trauma, infection, or crystalline deposits and various bursae of the knee may become inflamed.

Symptoms: Acute or chronic trauma causes a painful and often swollen knee from the inflammation of the bursae. A particularly common bursitis is prepatellar bursitis. This type of bursitis occurs in people who work on their knees. It is often referred to as housemaid's knee or carpet layer's knee. Another type of bursitis is anserine bursitis. The anserine bursa is located about 2 inches below the knee along the medial side of the knee. More commonly occurring in the overweight and in women, but also affecting athletes and others, anserine bursitis often causes pain in the region of the bursa and is often worse with bending the knee or at night with sleep.